LUXOR, Egypt, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities unveiled on Thursday evening a 60-ton statue of ancient Egyptian King Ramses II at the Luxor Temple after its restoration and re-erection on the Nile River's east bank in the southern province of Luxor.
"This statue is 12 meters tall and it is made of pink granite. It was broken into 14 pieces when we started its restoration eight months ago," Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said during an open-air ceremony held near the giant pylon.
Waziri explained that the pylon that has six giant statues, two sitting and four standing, used to have only three before the restoration work started in November 2016.
"Now we send a message to the world that we have the pylon of Luxor Temple with its six statues just as it was in ancient times," said the SCA chief.
The event is part of the activities held by the Ministry of Antiquities to mark the World Heritage Day, an international day for monuments and sites celebrated on April 18 each year since it was approved by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1983.
The ceremony was attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany, Tourism Minister Rania al-Mashat, Culture Minister Inas Abdel-Dayem and Luxor Governor Mostafa Alham, in addition to other Egyptian officials, parliamentarians and celebrities, as well as some foreign ambassadors.
Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. He ruled ancient Egypt about 3,300 years ago, leaving behind a rare legacy of monuments including his well-known great temple in the Nubian village of Abu Simbel village in Aswan province in southern Egypt.
